Chipping Hill Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

This is an outstanding school. Outstanding leadership and management have sustained the many strengths noted at the previous inspection.

There is an exceptional capacity for further improvement. The headteacher's uncompromising ambition for the school is shared by staff, the governing body and parents and carers. The curriculum is outstanding and promotes pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well.

The school acknowledges that its next step is to sustain this high-quality curriculum and the level of challenge it provides for all pupils into Years 5 and 6. Children make outstanding progress in the Reception class, particularly in their personal, social and emot...ional development and early literacy and numeracy skills. This strong progress continues throughout the school, especially in reading, writing and mathematics.

Standards of attainment in national assessments at the end of Year 2 have been significantly above average for many years. Pupils' excellent progress is due to consistently outstanding teaching over time. Exceptional teaching is evident not only in lessons observed but in pupils' work and discussions with them about their reading.

Excellent teamwork between highly proficient teaching assistants and teachers is a key feature and one that contributes significantly to the equally outstanding progress made by disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs. Pupils' behaviour is outstanding. The school's promise, 'Every day I will try to be thoughtful, caring and kind', is kept by all.

The school is a very harmonious community. Leaders and managers ensure teaching is consistently of high quality and manage performance exceptionally well. Teachers and teaching assistants share their expertise, for example, in information and communication technology (ICT) and help each other improve their performance exceptionally well.

The governing body has an astute understanding of the school's performance and actively challenges the school to do even better.

Information about the school

This is a smaller-than-average primary school. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average.

The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is also below average, although there is an above-average proportion with a statement of special educational needs. There is one class for each year group except in Year 3, where there are two. The large majority of pupils are of White British heritage.

The proportion of pupils who have minority ethnic heritage is below average. In September 2010, the school's status changed from infant school to all-through primary. Currently, the oldest year group in the school is Year 4 and these pupils are to proceed to become Years 5 and 6 in due course.

In January 2012, after almost a two-year delay to building works, pupils moved into the new school. The new school currently provides education for the area served by the former infant school and for the new housing development on which it is located. The school has attained the National Healthy Schools award.